MartSlinger
Player Valuation: £40m
4-3-3 is the way forward...
Barkley - McCarthy - Besic
Mirallas - Lukaku - (Insert boss winger here)
Barkley - McCarthy - Besic
Mirallas - Lukaku - (Insert boss winger here)
That is a huge leap given we've seen him very few times in that role, he also has some excellent performances as a number 10. No need to pigeonhole him so early.Naismith has to play for me. In that number 10 role his movement creates so much space for others. If you'e got Naisy in the number 10 and Barkley deep, his movement will allow Ross to run from deep exactly like what happened last night.
I think from now on Ross plays deep or not at all. He should be play in our team so I'd start him deep with McCarthy and/or Besic.
i wouldn't mind us trying 3 in the middle and giving our fullbacks a bit of space to run into for a change - in that formation i'd go with barry, besic and McCarthy.........Barkley further forward
Naismith in the wing? That's the problem with our team and probably the reason for our difficulties this season. Too many players who are best in the same positions.I think we could try a sort of inverse diamond i.e.
Besic----McCarthy
-----Barkley------
Naismith---Mirallas
-----Lukaku--------
The formation would allow for the width to come from Baines and Coleman as they would have cover in Besic and McCarthy. I think this might work away especially. Maybe at home we could drop Besic and add in a winger to play a more conventional 4231
Naismith has to play for me. In that number 10 role his movement creates so much space for others. If you'e got Naisy in the number 10 and Barkley deep, his movement will allow Ross to run from deep exactly like what happened last night.
I think from now on Ross plays deep or not at all. He should be play in our team so I'd start him deep with McCarthy and/or Besic.
A diamond seems to clog the center and Barkley plays better with more space. It's still a useful formation to play against the right teams.Why not play a diamond of mcarthy anchoring, Barkley and besic/Oviedo. Then noisy/eto at the tip of the diamond with lukaku/eto and kone/eto or lukaku/kone. Plenty of other options in the midfield rotation with Barry, pienaar, osman to come in and do a job if required.
We won more games with Phil Neville in the team than when he was out.Barry has missed 3 games, we have won all 3! I will let you figure out the rest.
Barkley and Besic at home against weak opposition. McCarthy to come in and push Ross into number 10 for the big away games.
Frankly there's an embarrasment of riches in there. Except perhaps for the Fabregas/Pirlo deep playmaker type he's almost got every single type of midfielder to choose from: powerful box to box, tough tackling defensive mid, pressurising ball keeping holding mid, experienced positionally aware shielder and a quarterback style player. If you add Osman in then you have your tricky schemer.
Martinez should have the tools here to play any combination of them depending on the opposirion. Instead the 'rotation' policy is just play a half fit 33 year old 3 times in a week for 90 mins and pair him with whoever is fit. Barry should not be an automatic starter but should come in as and when his skills are required. Ahainst relegation sides at home you don't need him.